Do you think your city can bio-mine it's legacy waste?

If you have travelled to Delhi by road, you might have crossed a huge pile of waste which to many, has appeared as a real mountain on their first sighting. This is Ghazipur Landfill. Allocated for waste dumping since 1984, the dumpsite had already crossed its waste holding capacity in 2002. Despite this, the civic body did not take any concrete steps to stop the garbage dumping.

Many Indian cities are creating such mountains of waste which are not only eye sores to the city’s image but also a constant health hazard for the residents. In order to manage their waste better, and so that they don’t meet the fate similar to Ghazipur dump, new solid waste management techniques are being tried out. Bio-mining is one of them.

Bio-mining, is defined as the conversion of aged municipal solid waste into reusable resources and involves a scientific process of excavation, treatment & segregation. This technique not only mitigates pollution but also helps in reclaiming large acres of land that can be used for other development purposes.

One of the recent efforts of Bio-mining of legacy waste in India can be seen in Chandigarh city. The civic authority has appointed a private agency to process the waste at Dadumajra dumpsite within six months through bio-mining. With a goal of achieving “garbage-free cities”, Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 (SBM 2.0) has mandated the cities with a population of less than 1 million to remediate the existing legacy waste dumpsites by March 31, 2023. However, cities like Indore, Bhopal, Ambikapur, Kumbakonam, Tirupati were successful in processing their legacy waste through bio-mining even before SBM 2.0 surfaced.

Management of legacy waste through bio-mining has created an opportunity to reclaim land as a resource from the dumpsite. Experts believe that to avoid long term damages, it is important to conduct post-mining monitoring of the reclaimed land before deciding appropriate reuse.

How does your city manage its waste?
Is your city eligible for biomining under SBM 2.0? S
hare your thoughts below.

Read about Dadumajra Bio-mining project here.